A Free Online VHF/UHF Propagation Tool for Technical

and Non-Technical Users

Charles W. Kelly, Jr.
Nautel Limited
Hacketts Cove, NS Canada

Abstract - Broadcasters are often confronted with

questions about FM, TV and STL propagation, such as is it
more effective to raise my antenna 100ft, or increase the
power of my transmitter?, or what would be the effect on
my coverage if I move my transmitter site?. While any
really accurate answers require the assistance of a
consulting engineer, there are simple tools now available to
give some approximate indication quickly and for no cost at
all.

ACCESSING THE NAUTEL RF TOOLKIT

There is no cost to use the RF Toolkit, simply login to
www.nautel.com/rf-toolkit. If you already are a Nautel
Users Group member and know your login, simply enter it,
otherwise click the Register tab, and enter the required
information and your password will be emailed to you in a
few moments. Once you are logged in, click Radio Coverage
Tool. You will be presented with the following menu.

NAUTEL RF TOOLKIT
Nautel has partnered with RF engineer Roger Coud,
the author of Radio Mobile[1] to provide simple, fast
online VHF/UHF coverage mapping and point to point
analysis worldwide. These tools are part of the new Nautel
RF Toolkit, available free online at the website
www.nautel.com.
The Radio Coverage Tool is based on the Longley-Rice
VHF/UHF ITS model[2], and includes a nearly 1 terabyte
digitized worldwide terrain database, based on NASA
Shuttle Radar Terrain Mapping data as well as other sources.
The accuracy of the data in the 48 contiguous US states is
approximately 10 meters, while in Canada the accuracy is
about 30 meters, and its about 100 meters in most other
places. In addition, other databases hold land cover
information and population information. The land cover data
indicates whether a spot is tree covered or urban for
instance, and this information improves the accuracy of the
propagation model. The population data is obtained from
publically available United Nations information, and allows
the program to estimate the population within the desired
contours.
LONGLEY-RICE MODEL
The Longley-Rice Irregular Terrain Model was originally
developed in the late 1960s by A.G. Longley and P. L.
Rice, and is widely used to estimate RF coverage in the
range 10MHz to 10GHz. Nautels implementation of the
Longley-Rice model is limited to FM and TV broadcast
frequencies as well as conventional STL frequencies used
worldwide. When used with accurate terrain data, it has
proven to be a reasonably accurate indicator of actual
coverage.

If your desired language is not English, click My

Settings, and change the language there. Currently, only
French and English are supported. The My Settings tab also
displays the Home location coordinates and Zoom level, but
these are set elsewhere.
GETTING STARTED WITH COVERAGE PLOTS
To begin, lets select your first transmitter location.
Click New Transmitter Site, and you will see a map with a
reddish cursor which can be dragged and dropped to your
desired location. If your location is off the map, you can
move the map and zoom in and out to select the correct site.
If you know the geographic coordinates of the site, you can
verify them with the numbers below the map. They are
shown in both DMS and decimal degrees format. You can
also switch to Satellite view, and actually locate the tower or
other structures to get the position correct. Once the cursor is

precisely on the site where the antenna will be located, click

Submit and this should be what you see:

Here are the parameters which correspond to the above

choices these parameters are being updated and added to.

Normally, you can leave the default value for Maximum

Range alone, but if you are using a very high power
transmitter, or have a very tall site or tower, you may wish to
increase this value. Note however that larger values take
longer to calculate.
When you click submit, the program will begin
computing, and may take a few minutes. The transmitter site
you chose will be shown, as well as the resolution per pixel.
Note this is the resolution of the display, not of the
computations.
After the system is finished computing, you will see the
estimated coverage shown over the top of a Google map. All
the normal tools you have to zoom and pan are supported.
You can turn on an off the plot, as well as the cursor
showing the transmitter site using the check boxes below the
picture. As useful as this drawing is, theres more to see!

Now, edit the Name field, changing New Transmitter

Site 1 to something more descriptive, and click Add to My
Transmitter Sites, and the program will indicate that your
location has been added to My Transmitter Sites.
Next click New Coverage Plot, and enter the description
of this new plot. It is recommended that you use a name
which includes the site name, transmitter power, antenna
type and elevation of the antenna above ground in meters,
such as HQ 1kW 2 bay 30M. Enter the elevation of the
center of the antenna in meters above ground, and use the
pull-down menu to indicate the approximate value of
transmitter power and antenna type in the Tx System field. If
the exact value in transmitter power isnt shown, use the
closest value. Enter the frequency in megahertz in the
Frequency field.
The Rx System field also has a pull-down menu and is
used to set the contours we want to see. Here are the choices:

Click the button Add to My Coverage Plots. Then click

My Coverage Plots, and select the plot you just created from
the pull down menu. Now you will see the same plot, but
now you have some additional features:
First, just above the map, you can see the color coding
for the two selected contours, including the number of
square kilometers and population covered by each contour.
Also just underneath the map, there is a pull-up display of all
the parameters that went into the creation of the map.
Normally, I drag the map slightly to the right, then pull up
the menu, and then do a screen capture (PrtSc) and paste the
screen into my favorite image editing software, where I crop
it and save it to my hard drive, or paste it into a document or
email.
Just beneath the pull-up display under the map, there is
a link that is used to download a Zip file containing the
documents related to this map. Extract these files to a
temporary directory. If you have Google Earth installed on
your computer, you can click the .kml file, and Google Earth
should open showing your coverage map on top of a
dynamic 3D Google Earth presentation, allowing you to add
other features or manipulate the graphic before saving it.
There are also .jpg and .png graphic files which are the
images showing the estimated contour, the ground cover for
the displayed area, the terrain height, and the population

density in the area. If you click the HTML file, it will

overlay the estimated contour over a live Google Map.
MULTIPLE COVERAGE PLOTS

In the From pull down menu, select the link transmitter

site (in many cases this is the studio), and the height of the
center of the antenna above the ground in meters. Then do
the same for the To site.

In some cases, you may wish to compare several site,

tower height, antenna gain, and transmitter power level
combinations to determine the best cost versus coverage. If
you create several coverage plots as outlined above, and
save them to My Coverage Plots, you can choose Multiple
Coverage Plots from the Main menu, and then select the
ones you would like to compare, holding down the Ctrl key
as you select the, and click the Submit button.

Enter a description for the link, and then the center

frequency of the link in MHz. From the manufacturers
documentation, enter the antenna, transmitter and receiver
details. If you dont have the details, you may need to
contact the manufacturer. Leave the required reliability
number at 70%. That allows the fade margin calculations to
define the reliability rather than considering the fade margin
twice.

On the resulting map, you can turn on and off the

various layers and see the changes in coverage.

Click Submit, and you will be presented with a huge

page of information. At the top, you should see a profile of
the path, which shows the terrain, and if long enough, even
the curvature of the earth. The white ellipses are the
calculated Fresnel zones which help understand the effect of
ground reflection on the path. The color on the top of the
ground denotes the ground cover information corresponding
to the path.

POINT TO POINT LINK ANALYSIS

In addition to coverage plots, the Nautel RF toolkit can
also be used to determine the usability of proposed point to
point STL links. To begin, define the location of the link
sites in the same fashion as you defined the New Transmitter
Sites above. Once you have the link sites defined, click on
the New Point to Point Link button. Heres what you should
see:

Note that a limitation of this sort of program is that it

cant predict the presence of buildings in the path. A visual
evaluation is suggested.
Beneath the path profile are geographic results of the
analysis, including coordinates, elevation data, and
calculated antenna azimuths and tilts. Below that are the RF
calculations, or as it is sometimes known, the link budget.
Next is the actual calculation of the fade margin. Note that
interpreting this number is best done by a qualified
engineering consultant. Also note that this sort of analysis
cannot predict the effects of interference, should it be
encountered.
Lastly, a map is provided showing the overhead view of
the path. You may choose to use screen captures to save the
images and data for inclusion in a document or report.
CAVEAT EMPTOR
The Nautel RF Toolkit is intended to aid broadcasters in
analyzing the approximate coverage with various transmitter
sites, power levels, antenna heights and antenna gain. While
the coverage tool is based on the well proven Longley Rice
modeling techniques, and publicly available SRTM terrain
data, it cannot be guaranteed and Nautel cannot assume any
liability for the results. Further, the coverage tool is not
meant to be a replacement for coverage studies and other
work done by professional consulting engineers. Please
consult with a qualified engineer before applying for your
license or ordering your equipment

REFERENCES

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

[1] Radio Mobile Website:

http://www.cplus.org/rmw/english1.html

The author is grateful to the following for sharing their

ideas, and technical wisdom:

Radio Mobile Users Group:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Radio_Mobile_Deluxe/

Roger Coude VE2DBE Author of Radio Mobile,

Montreal, Quebec

[2] Longley-Rice ITS Information from NTIA:

http://www.its.bldrdoc.gov/resources/radio-propagationsoftware/itm/itm.aspx

John Schneider W9FGH Author of the

groundbreaking RFS program. Quincy, IL
Tim Hardy and Phil Schmid Technical gurus
John Whyte and Ian Burns Marketing gurus